GRAND RAPIDS, MI – Wealthy Street Bakery hopes to start serving alcohol later this year now that it has a required zoning permit.

After postponing a vote last month due to concerns about increased seating, Grand Rapids Planning Commission on Thursday, Aug. 8, approved the bakery’s plan to serve beer and wine on site at 610 Wealthy St. SE and sell packaged beer and wine for takeout. The bakery scaled back its seating plans to ease concern that outdoor tables would get in the way of pedestrians on the sidewalk out front.
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Initial plans called for adding four 4-seat tables to four existing 2-seat tables outside the bakery, for a total of 24 outdoor seats. The plan approved today has four 4-seat tables immediately outside the bakery, but no seating on the street side of the sidewalk.

The setup could be tight with 12 feet between the building and the street: 4 feet for the tables, a required 6 feet of public sidewalk between the tables and a row of planters, then 2 feet of space between the planters and the curb.

Hall Street Bakery to serve alcoholDavid LaGrand, an owner of the planned Hall Street Bakery, talks about the role of alcohol in making the new restaurant a neighborhood gathering place.

Jim McClurg, one of the bakery owners, said the tables will be bolted to the ground so customers cannot move them around and onto the sidewalk. The bakery will have to make sure customers don’t spill into the sidewalk, planners said.

“(The permitted outdoor seating) is up to a certain number (16) and that’s subject to encroachment, which means that should there be issues we can go back and negotiate,” said Suzanne Schulz, city planning director.

McClurg and other owners of the bakery, including former City Commissioner David LaGrand, also are planning to open a second location, at 1200 Hall St. SE. Earlier this year, they got city approval to serve alcohol at that site when it opens.